Parameter (Statistics)

Topics: Statistics

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(definition)

In statistics, a parameter is a numerical characterisation of a population that describes partially or completely its probability distribution (density function).

For instance, in a population that follows a normal distribution $\mathcal{N}(\mu ,{\sigma }^2)$, both $\mu$ and ${\sigma }^2$ serve as parameters, that describe the population’s expected value and variance, respectively.